Mark Holtzman Jr., McKeesport Area School District superintendent, voices his frustrations with Pennsylvania's charter school law at a press conference on Thursday. (Richard Finch Jr. photo)
Charter schools are causing “financial instability” to urban school systems, said McKeesport Area School District Superintendent Mark Holtzman Jr. and officials from other area districts, who participated in a state-wide rally Thursday to ask Pennsylvania legislators for charter school reform.
The news conference held in McKeesport was part of an effort among nearly 20 other districts and timed to coincide with the 64th anniversary of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycotts sparked by Rosa Parks.
State Sen. Jim Brewster joined Holtzman and school district superintendents Sue Moyer of Duquesne City, Nancy Hines of Penn Hills and Linda J. Iverson of Wilkinsburg to discuss the impact of charter school funding in Mon Valley school districts.
A Pennsylvania state trooper has been named the first chief of McKeesport Area School District’s new police force.
Bob Boyle of White Oak, currently assigned to the Gibsonia barracks, will start in January 2020. An official start date is pending his formal retirement from the state police, Boyle said.
At the school board’s reorganizational meeting on Wednesday, school directors voted 8-1 to hire Boyle. School Director David Donato cast the only dissenting vote.
The chief’s job has been budgeted at $55,000 per year. The school district also will be advertising for three police officers at $25 per hour, School Board President Joe Lopretto said.
For the first time in anyone’s memory, holiday lights are decorating the windows of the People’s Bank Building, Downtown. Building owner Jonathan Stark and volunteers decorated the building in time for McKeesport’s Light-Up Night on Wednesday. (Tube City Almanac photo)
Scaffolding will be going up soon on part of the People’s Bank Building as workers replace a tile that fell into Lysle Boulevard on Nov. 27, and make other repairs to the facade.
Owner Jonathan Stark said an engineer visited the site on Monday and determined that each of the tiles was supposed to be secured with four metal anchors. On the tile that fell, two of the anchors were missing or never installed in the first place, Stark said.
The tile fell from the facade on the “annex” of the building that overlooks the corner of Lysle Boulevard and Walnut Street. The annex was reportedly built in the 1940s, after Lysle was widened.
Members of LaRosa Boys & Girls Club joined McKeesport city officials Downtown on Wednesday night for a Light-Up Night celebration.
For the first time, the city's holiday tree is located not in Kennedy Park, but in the nearby lobby of the Tube City Center for Business and Innovation, the former Daily News Building.
Participants in the Boys & Girls Club’s Career Works Teen Workforce Development Program, which meets in the Tube City Center on weeknights, served hot chocolate and refreshments to guests, while Paul Anselmo of New Century Careers, which is offering machinist training in the building, provided tours of his group’s classroom space.
McKeesport city council has approved a 2-mill increase in property taxes for 2020.
The increase comes despite a nearly $2 million decrease in projected spending for next year.
Mayor Michael Cherepko told council the city must continue to address annual budget deficits that in the past were paid for through asset sales and other one-time fixes.
Selling the sewerage authority in 2017 “bought us time to try to fix things,” and spending cuts have helped, but expenses are still outpacing revenues by about $1 million per year, Cherepko said.
The city has only increased property taxes once since 2001, when council actually lowered the tax rate on vacant land. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake, Cherepko said.
McKeesport, Duquesne, South Allegheny and other local school districts will participate in a statewide rally on Thursday demanding more oversight of Pennsylvania’s charter schools.
A group called Pennsylvania League of Urban Schools, or PLUS, is planning simultaneous press conferences at 12 noon at nearly 20 different school districts, calling on Gov. Tom Wolf and the state General Assembly to address what its leaders call “unfair and inequitable” funding.
“We are coming together in solidarity to stand up for fair funding,” said Stephen Rodriguez, president of PLUS and superintendent of the Pottstown Area School District, located about an hour northwest of Philadelphia in eastern Pennsylvania.
Other local districts planning to participate in Thursday's rally include Clairton, Penn Hills, Steel Valley, Wilkinsburg and Woodland Hills.
A stone panel fell from the People's Building on Wednesday afternoon, causing one lane of Lysle Boulevard to be closed Downtown.
No one was injured when the block fell at around 1 p.m. from the third-story corner of the so-called annex of the building, at the corner of Lysle Boulevard and Walnut Street.
McKeesport police, firefighters and ambulance rescue services responded to the scene.
The sidewalk near the building and part of one lane of Lysle Boulevard remained closed on Thursday.
McKeesport Area High School cheerleaders were among more than 70 different units in the city’s 55th annual Salute to Santa parade. (Vickie Babyak photos, special to Tube City Almanac)
Pleasant weather --- a welcome change --- drew a large crowd Saturday morning to Fifth Avenue for McKeesport’s 55th Annual Salute to Santa parade.
The parade got underway just after 11 a.m., following a performance of "Joy to the World" by McKeesport Area High School senior Joey Young. State Sen. Jim Brewster served as parade marshal.
Video was streamed live by Tube City Online and its radio station, WMCK, from the corner of Fifth and Walnut streets.
Photographer Vickie Babyak captured these scenes for Tube City Almanac.
(All photos: Vickie Babyak. For reprint information, email vbabyak@yahoo.com.)
Serra Catholic High School Eagle Marching Band and McKeesport Area High School Tiger Marching Band prepare for the parade under the Jerome Street Bridge.
Low-income homeowners in the Christy Park and Grandview (above) neighborhoods of McKeesport will be eligible next year for assistance upgrading their exteriors of their houses, with help from gaming funds and tax credits, local and state officials announced last week. (Tube City Almanac photo)
A Pittsburgh-based non-profit will begin helping residents of two McKeesport neighborhoods rehabilitate their homes with assistance from Pennsylvania gaming revenues.
Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh, located in Homewood, has been awarded $150,000 for a program to offer exterior improvements for low-income homeowners in Grandview and Christy Park in 2020, a spokeswoman for McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said.
The money will be provided from the state's Gaming Economic Development and Tourism Fund, which receives 5.5 percent of the revenues from casinos and other gambling facilities in Pennsylvania.
Separately, the state Department of Community and Economic Development has authorized $225,000 in tax credits for the same home improvement program, as well as $360,000 to the McKees Point Development Group for redevelopment projects and tourism enhancements in the Downtown area.
